It's not finished yet, but the Burj Dubai is now the tallest building in the world, according to its developer, Emaar Properties. Dubai has become a showplace for innovative buildings, and the Burj Dubai is shaping up to be an icon for wealth and progress. The unfinished skyscraper now rises 512.1 metres (1,680 feet), making it taller than Taiwan's Taipei 101 which rises 508 metres (1,667 feet). When the Burj Dubai is completed in 2008 it will boast:

• 160 floors
• 56 elevators
• boutiques
• corporate suites
• luxury apartments
• swimming pools
• a spire that can be seen 60 miles away

But right now, all this is mostly hype. Today the building is a concrete skeleton of 141 floors surrounded by construction equipment. We'll be watching.

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^{Photo: The Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower), still under construction AFP/Getty Images}